Simonyi announcement next week

The press release isn’t on the Space Adventures web site, but the company sent out a notice Thursday that the company will be holding a press conference in Seattle next Thursday, the 26th, to formally announce that Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft executive, will be the next orbital space tourist. According the the release, the press conference will discuss “Details on why the software developer and architect of Microsoft Word and Excel is going to space, his launch date and planned activities while at the International Space Station.” Simonyi will be at the press conference at the Museum of Flight, along with Space Adventures’ Eric Anderson and museum president Bonnie Dunbar (a former astronaut). As noted here earlier this week, Russian officials have already said that Simonyi will fly to the ISS on the next Soyuz taxi flight in April 2007.